Blizzard has changed a lot since the release of Diablo 2. The company found a true power position in the gaming industry with World of Warcraft and took careful notes on how that franchise stayed successful. When making Diablo 3, many of the things that they learned about modern PC gaming were integrated into the experience. When it was finally time for users to return to a world ruined by the lords of hell, Diablo 3 was designed to remind players of the franchise they grew up with, but was also a world that was built to last. The latest patch to the game, version 1.0.4, introduced changes that are clearly geared towards keeping people grinding through the corrupted lands of Diablo 3.

The Paragon Levels

The one big feature that Blizzard is focusing on with this update is the introduction of post-level 60 advancement. Before the update, once your character reached 60 you ran out of interesting things to do. If you decided to continue playing the game, your only real goal is to continue hacking and slashing through the burning hells for the chance of finding better gear. This is less tedious than it sounds when you play with multiple people, but it’s still pretty boring. To make matters worse, in order to have a better chance of getting a magic item drop you need to wear armor that increases the likelihood of that happening. Most of the good armor really focus on a high magic drop rate, so you wind up wearing lower quality armor and switching into more powerful armor when you’re taking on a boss.

The Paragon levels are designed to stop the armor swap by increasing your character’s magic drop percentage with each level. Your character level will now read as level 60, Paragon level x as you play through the game. This allows Blizzard to add more actual levels later on, and gives current level 60 characters a reason to keep playing.

Currently there are 100 possible Paragon levels, each of which is more difficult to achieve than the last. Actually reaching Paragon level 1 is about as difficult as reaching level 60 from level 59, and it only gets harder from there.

Unfortunately, the Paragon levels don’t release anything new in terms of content. You are still grinding through the same four acts, but the Paragon levels will make is easier to travel through the increased difficulty levels. Sine the better gear lives in the harder versions of the game, it will make it much easier to grind though those levels if you aren’t concerned about the drop rate of your armor. You can focus on more important things, like making sure you don’t get cornered by a horde of Lacuni.

Auction House overhaul

An unsung hero in the 1.0.4 update is the massive overhaul that the Auction House received. Especially in a world where level 60 users will be finding more and more magical items, it is important that the Auction House be prepared to help users buy and sell these items for the benefit of all. The Auction House received several significant bug fixes — mostly in things like error reporting and a search system that is no longer case sensitive — but also added some user control to the service in case an auction needed to be cancelled as long as there are no active bids.

The most important feature, in my opinion, was the increase in preferred stats that you can filter when you search for items. The increase from three slots to six slots adds a much needed granularity to search, especially in higher level characters. As you increase in level the build type that you select for your character requires very specific qualities in your armor and weapons, and the increase in filters makes it much easier to find the right equipment for your needs.

Much needed class tweaks

By the time you have started playing the Inferno difficulty in Diablo 3, you have realized that there are certain skills with your class that are just plain useless now. They were fun to play with in the previous difficulties where you could hold your own, but now that you are focused on survival these skills don’t really hold up. Each class has them, and they have needed to be adjusted for a little while. In the 1.0.4 patch notes, Blizzard has identified critical flaws with each class that addresses many of these lacking skills.

In playing my Barbarian, Monk, and Wizard, I found myself much more willing to experiment with other builds again. Some of the changes feel extreme, like the Exploding Palm ability for the Monk which was adjusted from 220% weapon damage over 3 seconds to 745% weapon damage over 9 seconds. The Wizard also saw weapon damage increased from 450% to 1600% with the Archon ability. Not every class saw such extreme changes, but each class saw some necessary tweaks to encourage re-exploring the way you play with that class.

Is it enough to return to New Tristram?

With a volley of really impressive PC games on the horizon, not the least of which is Blizzard’s own Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft, Is the 1.0.4 patch enough to keep users playing Diablo 3? The changes that were made all seem really positive, but the game itself hasn’t really changed.

For gamers who have reached level 60, or even those who completed Act 1-4 already, the game is still very much a grind for the sake of grinding. I find that the game is still really enjoyable to play with friends, but there’s very little keeping me in the game when things like Mechwarrior Online or Borderlands 2 have dropped.

Reader Comments

Timassin

I haven’t played D3 since maybe the start of July The patch they released has alot of much needed changes and things that should have been part of the game on release. Unlike D2 if I were to stop playing that game for a week or 2 I would be running back to the PC to log back on, with D3…I can’t say I’ve really missed it at all. Guild wars 2 also coming out in less then a week, which is the same price as D3 much much more to do tons of modes of PVP, I know I’m comparing an MMO to ARPG but how can anyone jusity playing D3 instead of GW2. The only thing D3 has going for it is the name Diablo.

Tom Hock

GW2 crap all over again. What we really need is a ground breaking game not a knock off or the same old same old.

Someone think fast. We need something to remove LVing out right but bring a MMORPG to the table that has progression “without! Lving up”

LVing up is a thing of the past and We need something more skill based than the same OLD SHIT!

Guildwars 2 no matter what will still be the same old same old.

END

V^.

How about this…. take your CRAP paragon levels and stick them where the sun dont shine! im tired of reading articles that say blizzard is listening to its fans because they arent or else they would scrap the paragon and just fix the damn drops. I dont want to grind the butcher for the millionth and one time, i dont want your gay stat raise per paragon level, all i want is some better drops. HELLO BLIZZARD CAN YOU HEAR ME? oh wait…. im not a fan anymore

taylorlauder

lots of whiners on this site.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1592193118 Andrew Lucci

I knew this would happen. When d2 came out, blizzard wasn’t looking for a cash cow. They wanted to reinvent the gaming industry. While they may have fallen.short of that goal, Diablo 2 was arguably the best PC game during that generation.

Then they had wow. Again, they reinvented the genre and had a game people were dying to play. But Diablo 3 was about living up to the hype. Developers try new things all the time but most of it fails and u forget it or never even hear of it. If Diablo 3 fails though, its significant. So instead of breaking the mold they stuck with what works. I can’t blame them.for that but what made Diablo big in the first place was that it was new, unique.

I haven’t played d3 and as much as I loved d2 I doubt I will. With wow I chooses not to play because I knew I would like it and invest all my free time in it.even when ur done with ur main goal there’s so much else to do. With d3, I would still be investing a large amount of time, but for what? Better paragon levels?

I’m not trying to hate. Watching my friends play I would be lying if I said I didn’t get excited. I mean come on, its Diablo! But after so many years of waiting, so much hype, there was no way Diablo 3 could have lived up to expectations. Blizzard put together another quality game, as usual. I’m just gonna go ahead n sit this one out though

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1592193118 Andrew Lucci

Its the internet, and an article about one of the most well known video games…did u really expect maturity???

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1592193118 Andrew Lucci

The length of these games is also a turn off. If I hadn’t gone on disability a couple months ago n had nothing but time I never would have picked up skyrim. Lots of content is great. But that doesn’t mean we need 200+ hours of side quests. I’m not complaining, I’d rather have too much content than not enough. I just think that adding meaningless content for the sake of content is as bad as not enough(I’m looking at u dragon age, making me spend 2 hours curing a werewolf for 200 gold and zero story progression)